SUCCESS!!!

I am happy to report that our trash was collected!! Apparently sarcasm works around here.

I took my excess clothes to the recycle center to donate them. I included a photo. In order to get all of our clothes in the house I had to discard some. I am a bit of a clotheshorse and still have plenty to wear. Matt says he doesn't want to see the photo. I guess it will just annoy him at the amount of clothes I had. I know it annoyed everyone who helped unload the moving truck. If I could have only cleared out all of these clothes BEFORE they were brought inside the house.

I took Chloe to IKEA yesterday to pick up some items. She was playing in one of the many play areas and picked up the dreaded word that most toddlers possess in their vocabulary..."MINE". It is amazing how they can pick up certain words so quickly. A little girl was riding a rocking horse and Chloe walked over to say hello. The little girl, thinking Chloe was after the toy, shouted "MINE". Well, that was it, Chloe was sold on the word. She immediately ran over to a chair, hopped in it and shouted "MINE". She then got up, ran over to a stuffed animal, picked it up and shouted "MINE" back at the little girl. Wonderful.

It is a bright and sunny 70 degrees here today so we took a stroll through "Mayberry" (as I affectionately refer to our town). I think when you tell people that you are moving to New Jersey they automatically visualize Newark and The Sopranos theme song starts playing in their heads. I am here to report that our town does not fit into any of those stereotypes and am certain that our friends and family would be pleasantly suprised, if not shocked, at the quaintness of our village. Anyway, I digress. Chloe and I took a walk to the park and she played and then we strolled into town. All the shops are having a sidewalk sale and we strolled through downtown and stopped for some pizza. Chloe loves pizza now and she finished her slice quickly and then jumped out of her chair to chat up the table of ladies next to us and to do a dance for the entire restaurant. Chloe wanted to walk from downtown to our house (not quite 1 mile) and push the stroller. Pushing the stroller lasted until the 1st hill and then she began pulling dandelions out of people's yards and attempting to blow the seeds everywhere. The grass freaks of New Jersey would like to send a shout out to Chloe's PaPaw for teaching her this trick and for helping spread the dandelion weed to their yards. Viewing all the torn up and re-seeded yards on our walk, I was careful to explain to Chloe to stay on the sidewalk and not walk in people's grass. I was afraid one of the neighbors who spent 10 hours destroying then re-seeding his yard would also have set out alarms in case your 22-month old accidentally stepped underneath the caution tape and cones into their prized lawn. Luckily, we made it home without any incident and now I have a sleepy toddler who informed me it was nap time. Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy! We are taking this walk everyday!

On a side note: Matt and I discovered this morning why the former owner of the house left behind a major stash of light bulbs. We thought they just had a light bulb fetish. Well, we have had to break into that stash too frequently. As we wake up in the morning and turn on the lights we sometimes get to hear a "Pop" and the light bulb goes. Are they cheap bulbs? No, it's wiring circa 1925! I guess it's one of the joys of an 80 year old house and it answers the riddle to why the previous homeowner left what we thought was a lifetime supply of light bulbs in the house.

Mommy's Little Helper

Chloe has become quite a little "helper" around the house. So much so that I had to put child-locks on the cabinets to keep her from helping. While her help is appreciated, I think I may lose my sanity if I have to put the pots and pans back in the shelves or even the dirty dishes back in the dishwasher. I did leave her access to the dust pan and broom (as you can see from the photo) which is pulled out every morning and several times thereafter.

It looks like it will be a beautiful and cool day here in Jersey. I am ready to paint Chloe's room, but must admit I am not feeling moved to do so. Chloe has insisted on helping on every task and I know that she will insist on this one. I am not certain that my nerves are up to removing paint from her hair.

Our trash has still not been picked up, we have now been skipped 3 times for trash collection. I called and filed a complaint on the sanitation phone line. I asked for the secret to getting one's trash collected in the village because our obvious tactics of leaving it at our curb on our pick-up day and going to their office and having the account switched to our name was not working. I haven't heard back from them. I am not sure whether they will appreciate my sarcasm but imagine that they are replaying my message and laughing at my hillbilly Texas accent and trying to decipher what I am saying. "Is she telling us she wants a filet-o-fish?"

Chloe and I are going to the recycling center to drop off a bunch of unwanted clothes and to attempt to get our recycling containers again. We stopped by on Monday but no one was in the office. Maybe today will be our lucky day and we can at least unlock the riddle to getting our aluminum cans and newspapers collected.

What did she say?

We are slowly, but surely settling in to the new house. I have to go to the village hall because we have been skipped twice now for trash collection. The clutter is starting to build up. You pay your sanitation separately here and apparently they work better on tips. Hmmm, maybe I should stake a $20 bill to the pile of rubbish accumulating and see if that works.

I am at the point of frustration now in unpacking. Things have to go up and downstairs (we have a 4-story house with the walk-up attic) and Chloe doesn't do so well on the wood stairs. She also insists on helping, which usually means she just makes a bigger mess or puts what you just took out of the box back in the box. She means well.

I still haven't put up my clothes as our master bedroom closet is the size of our last linen closet. Matt is going to have to build a closet out of the 4th-story attic.

I unpacked all of Chloe's room items today and she got really excited to see all of her things again. They are spread out all over her room. I want to paint before I start hanging things.

Matt is coming home early today and we are going to go and do some damage at Home Depot.

Before I sign off, I must tell the story which relates to the title of this blog. Yesterday, Chloe and I ran a few errands in Suffern, NY. We got delayed thanks to the check-out lady who refused to pick up and scan my items herself but made me individually hand them to her (what a nutter). But that is another story. Anyway, we drove through a McDonald's because Chloe was hungry. I ordered a cheeseburger happy meal and the girl working the drive-thru repeated back, "One filet-o-fish". I said, "No, I don't want a filet-o-fish, I want a cheeseburger happy meal". And she then repeated back, "a filet-o-fish and a cheeseburger". I said "NO! I don't want a fish sandwich, I just want a cheeseburger happy meal" and to that she replied, "a filet-o-fish and a medium fry". This is the point that I began to search for the hidden camera, not seeing it, I began to freak. She told me to just drive to the first window. I was then greeted by the girl and a young man who asked me what I ordered. I again stated "a cheeseburger happy meal". The young man responded, "oh, she wants a happy meal....what kind?" Ugggh! I repeated "cheeseburger" and he told me the amount to pay. Just as I was about to drive off I told the young man, "You know, I may be from Texas, but English is my first language." His response, "is that where that accent is from?"

We're In!

What a joy it is to move. Why don't we do this more often?!?

It's Wednesday, the moving truck arrived on Saturday and I think we have just about dug ourselves out of the maze of boxes in our new home. That is not to say that there aren't lots of boxes still around. I'm stealing a few moments to write this as Chloe and I wait for Directv to arrive. They called over two hours ago to say that they would be here in an hour.

We were supposed to move in Friday, but our closing wasn't until 1 p.m., so we had the moving truck arrive on Saturday. Since we couldn't move anything in, we decided to start on some renovations and ripped up the carpet on the 2nd floor to discover beautiful wood floors underneath. Deanna and Matt filled the garage with the carpet. After we settle in, we will start of the 2nd phase of sanding and coating the floors.

Moving day was a chore on Matt, our truck driver Doug and my sister Deanna. We did get some help for 2 hours from our realtors son and his friend. I got lots of comments on the amount of clothes that Chloe and I had and the amount of kitchen items. I think those items together made up half of the moving truck.

It took me 4 days to finish the kitchen. So far the kitchen, living room, dining room, family room and bathroom are unpacked. I don't want to even fathom the pain that I will feel when I start on my clothes. I am holding off on that task for another day or so. My clothes are currently on 3 levels and Chloe is not to keen to have Momma running up and down stairs while she waits on the 1st floor. It is a project that will have to be started when Daddy can help.

So, back to the move-in excitement....Well, after starting to unload at 9 a.m. we were able to get everything off the truck by 4:30 p.m. The biggest disappointment of the day was that none, and I mean NONE, of our furniture fits in the basement. Now, our furniture would fit in the space if there wasn't a structural pole sitting at the end of the stairs, blocking the entrance into the basement. We couldn't get our couch, or big screen TV to go into the space, that's after knocking a giant hole into the pole. Luckily, Matt and Doug were able to get the washer and dryer into the basement's laundry room. But, unfortunately the plug for the dryer had been turned off and we had to hire and electrician to rewire it. I hate doing laundry, but I love my front loading washer and dryer and after having all of our sheets, bedding and towels in storage for 5+ months, I wanted to wash those items. I wasn't able to do that until Tuesday.

During our move we realized that we left some important items behind in Dallas like the rails to our king bed, our grates to our grill and a few other items. When we moved out of our house in Allen, we thought we were going to McKinney, not northern New Jersey. So, our packing wasn't the best. We also didn't have a clue that we would be moving into a smaller house. Lets just say that we have plenty of stuff for a garage sale.

Sunday, we hid Easter eggs and let Chloe search for them in the backyard. She didn't seem to understand why she was hunting eggs, but she had a good time searching for them. She found all 14 with the help of Mom, Dad and Aunt Deanna.

During all of our moving in drama, we had a plethora of neighbors come out to meet and check us out. They all seem nice and there appears to be a lot of children in the neighborhood. As I was told by one of our younger neighbors, "I hope you like kids because there are a lot around here!"

I don't think I could have accomplished anything without my sister, Deanna, coming in from Colorado to assist us with moving in and helping out with Chloe. Chloe enjoyed having "An Nana" here too because she gets to try new things, like Altoid gum. Yes, "An Nana" gave my 22-month old Altoid gum. Scary thing is Chloe seemed to like it. Despite the gum incident, I have to give a note of thanks to Deanna for taking Chloe to the park while I unpacked and making Easter dinner in a pinch.

Chloe also seems to be enjoying the laoyout of the new kitchen. I put her fruit snacks in a bottom shelf that she can reach. About 15 times a day she now brings me a bag of fruit snacks, which she calls "snaps" and wants me to give them to her. We have had some meltdowns today as she has been told "no more snacks". Being denied her 8th bag of fruit snacks, she then asks for chips. I am beginning to rethink the location of some food items in the kitchen.

For the last three days in the new home, I have been intrigued by the lawn maintenance of my neighbors. I have to go to the local lawn & garden center and have a professional explain the why and what for of the events occuring around my home. All day long we can hear the lawn mowers, aerators and roto tillers scalping and then completely ripping up people's front yards. We are one of only a handful of houses that has not anihilated the grass in our front yard, reducing the lawn to dirt. Yesterday, we watched our neighbor spend as much time destroying his grass as it took us to unload our moving truck! And today, my neighbor across the street is paying someone to destroy his lawn. I must find the answer to this mystery. Deanna "Googled" lawn care for New Jersey and we found no rhyme or reason to this phenomenon occuring around us. I have to believe that destroying and digging up your grass must yield a more beautiful lawn. If not, then I have moved to a city of nutters.

Despite the pain of moving, it is a relief to be back in our own home again. Matt says that he hopes I like the place, because we aren't moving again.

Well, Chloe has brought me some more fruit "snaps" and is now telling me "hit" (what she does when she gets mad) because I won't let her have them. She's putting on a good show for me...someone is definitely approaching two-years old. Anyone that gets that worked up over not getting a fruit snack needs a nap. We're off for a little shut eye.

The Garden State is Now Home

Chloe and I arrived in our new home state late last night. Friday's closing will make New Jersey officially our home.

Our departure from Texas was bittersweet. I have lived outside of Texas before, but I always knew I was coming back. This transfer has been a long-time coming. Matt & I feel that this move is best for our family, as Dallas doesn't hold too many opportunities for his business. Matt's in the "big leagues" now in NYC, and it has been a goal for him and his business to make it to this level.

Since we arrived in at midnight, Chloe and I slept in late today, . The weather here is bright and sunny and around 68 degrees. I feel like I am getting to relive spring all over again! We stalked our new home and checked out our new hometown. Everything is in full bloom and the town looks like Mayberry, very idyllic.

In an odd twist, our realtor called us this afternoon to tell us that the 1st house we put an offer on was now back on the market. The people whose offer they took over ours did not get a mortgage. We both offered the same amount for the house, but they took the other offer because it seemed more solid, they were putting a HUGE amount down on the house (almost enough to outright buy the house). As it turns out, that downpayment was untrue and the couple couldn't qualify for a mortgage. When they told us they accepted the other offer, they said if it fell through, we could have the house. Well, they stuck to their word and called us, but unfortunately for them, they found out their offer wasn't going to materialize the same week we are moving into another house. I do feel bad for them. They were supposed to close this week too, and only just found out. Their realtor said they had already packed up and moved out in preparation for closing.

My sister is coming in tomorrow from Denver to help watch the Chloester while we move in. I am going to take lots of photos of the move-in. For those of you who know, when we sold our house in Texas, we were only supposed to being moving one town north. But, as fate would have it, this became a cross-country move. We have 3800 sq. feet of stuff to cram into a 2400 sq. foot house. This should be interesting. Add to the mix that we hired our realtor's son and his pals on the high school lacrosse team to unpack the truck. This should be entertaining.

Heading North

We are preparing to pack our bags and head to the northeast. After several attempts at buying a house, we were successful! If there is a housing bubble and it is going to come crashing down soon, they are unaware of it in New Jersey. Every house we bid on went above asking and there were always multiple offers.

Alas, we succeeded in our quest for a home and Chloe will soon have her own room...with all her Chloe items in it.

Our next post should be of the move.

Lovely Weather

Chloe's Aunt Deanna (or "An, An, Enana" as Chloe says it) came in to town on a pit-stop for her job. It was warm and lovely in Dallas so Chloe, Mommy and Aunt Deanna went to the Arboreteum to enjoy Dallas Blooms. Chloe enjoyed splashing in many of the fountains and being carried through the frog fountains for a refreshing cool-down.

Road Trip

Chloe had her first long ride in the car. We drove Matt's car up from Dallas to NYC last weekend. We left Dallas on Saturday just in time to hit the ice storm that swept over Little Rock. It took us 10 hours to go 130 miles from Little Rock to Memphis. Chloe was a trooper and did really well. She enjoyed shouting "truck" as we were surrounded by 18-wheelers on Interstate 40 that were getting stuck on the highway. The next two days of driving were easy compared to our frst day on the road.

Along our 1600+ mile journey, Chloe learned to sing. Her favorite tunes to belt out are "Mr. Sun", "Twinkle, Twinkle" and what Matt and I call the "Bottle Song", which is Chloe's ode to her "bot-tool" (as she pronounces it). Chloe also has begun to count. Her favorite numbers are 2 and 5. She will start at 1 and then go to 2 and then it is 5. Matt and I can keep counting but the next number, according to Chloe, will always be 2 or 5.

When we arrived in Jersey, we stayed at a condo on the Jersey shore. Chloe has finally learned that the big water is not a "pool" but is called an "ocean". Of course, she didn't go in the ocean as it was cold and windy. She just liked to look at it.

This week we are back at the hotel. Chloe is famous around here and the staff was a little upset that we chose to keep her at the condo and not at the hotel. They have nicknamed her "Dora" because they think she looks like Dora the Exporer. We have a ridiculous amount of luggage now and as we were getting help bringing in all of the stuff (the majority of which is Chloe's), the cleaning lady stopped by our room to give Chloe a basket (it is the basket that holds all the coffee and which Chloe loves to carry) along with the hostess at the restaurant to see Chloe and the maintenance man. Chloe is a superstar around this place!

As much as we enjoy the attention at the Marriott, we continue to look for houses in NJ. I believe that Chloe and I have seen every house for sale in Morris, Essex and Bergen counties. Chloe lets me know if she likes a house by telling me she wants down. If she doesn't want me to put her down then we know she doesn't like the house. So far we have made a short list of houses, one in each of the 3 counties listed. Matt is taking an afternoon off and we are going to go and look at the 3 choices and hopefully make a decision. One of the houses already has 2 offers, but they are waiting for our offer (if we make one). It's the best house we've seen and at the best price (still a ridiculous sum of money for what the house is) but in the place we least want to live! That's the way it goes. So, we have some decisions to make.

I have posted a picture of Chloe in her Texas attire. We took the photos before our road trip. She is in the picture with "Pink", her rocking cow.

Right as we are looking to buy a house in New Jersey she now says "Texas" all the time (she learned the word listening to a George Strait song in the car). She also likes to mention "Tucky" which is her speak for "Kentucky". I guess she liked what she saw as we drove through.

A Day at the Zoo

After the blizzard in NYC, we returned to the sunny and warm weather of Dallas. It was a lovely 80 degrees and Chloe and Mommy went to the Dallas Zoo.

Chloe has been to the Central Park Zoo, but she never saw an elephant, tiger or lion (and it turned out she could care less about seeing them). Her favorite animals are always the monkeys but she also enjoyed the camel and the kangaroo. She now likes to go "boing!" like the kangaroo.

We went to the children's petting zoo and Chloe loved the goats. She loves to pet them and say "baaaaa". She was running around with the goats, but when she walked up to see the bunny and the guinea pig she freaked out and wanted Mommy to "hold you".

All in all, we had a nice day at the zoo.

Blizzard!

The snow kept falling in NYC, dumping a little over 26 inches. We were trapped in the hotel all day Sunday. We all became a little "stir-crazy", including Chloe. She threw several tantrums as she refused to take an afternoon nap. She finally crashed out at 4:30 p.m. and we had to wake her for dinner. She enjoyed watching all the snow come down. We finally broke out for dinner, going to the Chinese restaurant next to the hotel. We tried to get Chloe to play in the snow, but she wasn't game for that. She just wanted Daddy to "geese", which is her word for skip. She is very insistant that you skip with her while you hold her now. Of course, we weren't up for skipping in 2 feet of icy snow.

Saturday, we went to Ridgewood, New Jersey to look at homes. We really like the city, but think taxes may be too high. We can go south or west from NYC and get a little more house with less taxes. We shall see. We hope to have a decision made within the next couple of weeks.

Tonight we are going to the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden. Chloe should enjoy looking at all the dogs.

Homeless

The past month has been a little insane. We started the paperchase for a sister for Chloe and we began house hunting for our new home near NYC. Prices are a little ridiculous, but seem to be coming down about 10%.

Chloe has been a trooper, going to houses with Mommy and riding all over the Jersey 'burbs checking out communities.

We hope that we will officially be moved and in a home by mid-April.

In the meantime, we are paperchasing for Emma Claire and enjoying seeing the amazing changes in Chloe. She is so friendly and is well-known in the Jersey City hotel that Daddy has been calling home. Today, she and Mommy went house-hunting in Bergen County New Jersey. They stopped at a mall in Paramus and Mommy and Chloe got stopped 7 times (no exaggeration) by people in the mall to comment on how Chloe was a "doll baby". Of course, she gets plenty of attention as she is running down the mall yelling "HI!" and blowing kisses to random strangers.

Our digital camera is broken, so there are no pictures. Hope to have some posted soon of our little charmer.

Merry Christmas and Happy 2006!

We hope everyone's holidays were great. Chloe enjoyed her first Christmas, though she was a little disappointed that Uncle John could not come to Dallas to celebrate.

Chloe had many gifts to open on Christmas morning and we thank all of those who sent her presents. She has been playing with them everyday. Some of her favorite items are her Little People schoolbus sans Little People. She throws the people out of the bus. She also likes her chair that BeBe and PaPaw gave her and most of all her push car. Some of her presents will be for later in the year as she grows. Daddy bought Chloe a rocking cow from FAO Schwarz in New York City and dragged it 30+ blocks. Of course, wouldn't you know that Chloe is afraid to sit on the cow. She does kiss "Pink" every morning and we are sure she will warm up to it soon.

We rang in the new year with some of our old neighbors in Allen. Chloe was going to come and celebrate with us, but we took her to the aquarium and she was worn out. She stayed with BeBe and PaPaw and was in bed asleep by 8 p.m.

Chloe is really growing up fast and is constantly aware of all around her. Lately she has taken to saying "ok" and "ciao momma" (which was taught to her while we dined out on Mexican food). She also likes to randomly say "Matt", which she does not equate to her Daddy. Today she has been walking around saying "No" all day with an occassional "ok" thrown in there. She also discovered the word "pillow" and has been showing momma all of the pillows around the house. And, not to continue to brag but...she has been learning her colors this morning. I asked her to hand momma the blue crayon and she did. I went down the list of all 8 crayons and she got them all correct. Of course, when I asked for the pink crayon she pointed to the rocking cow (whose name is "Pink"). A little confusing, but she got it in the end.

We can't wait to see what unfolds in 2006. So far it is shaping up to be an exciting year like 2005. We have begun the process for adopting from China again and hope to bring home Emma Claire by early 2007. It also looks like our home plans may change once again. Instead of building or buying a home in the DFW area, we will more than likely be moving to New York City. Ok, before you chime in too, we have already heard more than we care to hear from friends and family all the negatives of NYC. Everyone feels free to share their NYC horror stories about what a nightmare it is to live there. Of course, none of these people have actually lived there. We are aware that every place has it's stereotype and according to the NYC stereotypes we have been priviledged to hear it is all yellow cabs, not family friendly, takes at least a million a year salary to survive there, everyone is rude and every place you can live (besides Central Park West) is a dump in the ghetto. With all of the endearing tales of NYC that we have heard, we are still excited about the move and a new opportunity. We believe any place you live is what you make of it. So, with that all said, we will let you all know when we move.

Best wishes for the new year!

Home Sweet Home!

We have been out of our house for almost a month and have been at Shannon's parents house. Chloe is doing great and enjoys all the attention that she gets from PaPaw and BeBe.

We have been observing our new house being built and have been meeting with pool builders. In the meantime, we have been checking out other houses on the market. We came across a house in McKinney that is on Eldorado Country Club with a pool and really fell in love with it. We put an offer in last week and after some negotiations, it was accepted. We are waiting for the house inspection, but if everything goes as planned we will be in this house in January 2006.

Matt has been busy with new clients in New York. Chloe and Shannon went to NYC for the weekend and we were surprised by snowfall! We left the hotel and headed out for a carriage ride in Central Park. Apparently every other tourist in the city had the same idea and it was complete chaos. Chloe, with her good looks, got us a ride! We also enjoyed going to FAO Schwarz and finding Chloe a Christmas present.

We are eagerly anticipating this holiday season as we are now a family of three.

6 months with the Chloester

November 5th marked our 6-month anniversary as a family of 3. It was 6 months ago that we received Chloe and officially adopted her. We celebrated with a little cheescake from the Cheesecake Factory (Chloe likes cheesecake). We will also be completing our 6-month update and starting our paperwork for Emma Claire soon. We will be able to submit our dossier for Emma Claire on May 5, 2006, one year after adopting Chloe. I don't know if Chloe is excited about the prospect of a little sister. When Shannon was completing the adoption application on-line, Chloe walked up and shut down the computer, losing all the work Mommy had completed..hmmmm? Did she mean to do that?

It's also official...we are homeless. We closed on our house this past Monday and have been living at Shannon's parents house until our new house is complete (which will be March). Chloe doesn't seem to mind because she is getting lots of attention. Dinner is always fun because she has 4 adults to watch her antics and she knows if she doesn't want to sit in the highchair anymore that Papaw will pick her up (sucker).

In the meantime, we are gearing up for Chloe's first holiday season with us!! It is going to be great fun!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

It was Chloe's 1st Halloween and boy did we enjoy it! The "we" in that statement is: Mommy, Daddy, Papaw and Bebe, notice Chloe has not been included. She was generally clueless to the whole event, only that we dressed her in a ladybug outfit with an annoying hood and people laughed at her all night. When Chloe was handed candy by one of the neighbors, Chloe threw it back at her. She really had no idea what was going on. Nevertheless, she was a trooper (as long as she could hold Mommy and Daddy's hands and walk).

Since Chloe will be more aware of next year's Halloween festivities, she has already put in a request to be a "DUCK!" In Chloe speak, that means she would like to be anything feathered that flies. Anything that meets that criteria is a "duck". This fall, as everything begins to die off and the blackbirds appear, I get to hear "duck, duck, duck, duck!" on every car ride and walk outside the house. So, duck she will be next year...her wish is my command.

What a month!

October has been quite a month. Matt's Mum, Anne, came to visit her 3 grand-daughters. She was here for 3 weeks. Chloe enjoyed visiting her "Nana" and picked up lots of new words from her like, "knock-knock", "pat" and "tap, tap". We were also able to take Anne and Chloe to New York City for a long weekend. Chloe took a bite out of the Big Apple. She was all "Buy low, sell high!" when we were on Wall Street. She gathered lots of attention as she blows kisses, demands you say "hi" back to her by repeating it thousands of times and her general good looks (hey, she is the cutest baby in the world).

After only 2 weeks on the market, we sold our house. We were very thankful for the quick sale. We will live with Shannon's parents until our new house is ready. Of course, they can't wait to have Chloe come live with them and entertain them (we will have to see if they are still as excited in March when we move out).

We also decided to go ahead and submit our paperwork for baby #2 from China. We will have Chloe's 6-month homestudy update and begin the homestudy process again for #2! So, check out the website for "Emma Claire's Page" soon.

What Can't Chloe Do?

We had a lovely family vacation to Colorado to visit Shannon's sister in Denver. Chloe enjoyed her time in Denver, viewing the mountains, Daddy and Uncle John cycling, the trees and all the ducks. That's right, according to Chloe, Colorado is infested with ducks. Everything with wings is a duck. She even called an elephant a duck. Despite her duck fetish, Chloe enjoyed meeting her Uncle John and she even picked up an Uncle John-ism. When she takes a drink now she says, "AHHHHHH!" afterwards, just like Uncle John.

Chloe has reached a lot of new milestones. She will ask for her sippy-cup now and may even take a drink from it, she also is feeding herself (sometimes) and best of all she is taking her first steps (taken for Mommy, Daddy, Aunt Deanna and Uncle John in Colorado).

Chloe's latest achievements caused Aunt Deanna to muse, "What will Chloe do next?". The three photos are Aunt Deanna predictions. They are very amusing and who knows, they could be true!?!

At A Loss

Yesterday, Tuesday, September 20, we lost Shiner, our Clumber Spaniel, to heatstroke. We are heartbroken. Shiner was 6 years old.

Texas was not a friendly place for Shiner who often suffered in the Texas heat. We laid Shiner to rest with a few of his favorite things on Shannon's Dad's farm. Things just won't be the same without his "shouting" at us all the time, his piles of hair that build-up in the corners of the house, his slobber on the walls, his waiting by Chloe's high-chair for her to drop a Cheerio or let him lick the yogurt off her hands and his "bunny-hopping" to go and get his bone.

Shiner was our boy and we will miss him dearly.

Ok, ok, it has been a while since I posted but Chloe has been very busy. Here's a catch-up on whats been going on...

• Chloe is eating like a champ! She doesn't care for baby food. If it is in a jar then she doesn't want it! She wants to eat what we are eating and she wants to eat it off a fork.
• Chloe decided it was time to hold her own bottle! She is still working on learning how to tip it to get the last remaining ounces out. We hope that she will decide to take the sippy cup instead of the bottle. Right now she likes to play with the sippy cup, not use it.
• Chloe is cruising around and likes to stand on her own and the fall and say "Boom!". It is a game that we play. Her pediatrician said she is capable of walking any day now, it just depends on if Miss Chloe wants to or not.
• Chloe LOVES music and dancing. If she hears a beat (even hammering) then she will start dancing. We bought her a little musical piano and she enjoys banging out some tunes.
• In August, Chloe's Grandad visited from Sweden. Chloe enjoyed the visit and all the attention!
• Chloe's lastest words are "duck", "up", "down", "out", "bye-bye", "eat", "bite", "Lizzie" (which is "is-e"), "hey!" and "meow" (for the cats). Sometimes she tries to form a sentence and you get "Duck duck down Daddy", but she says it as if it makes perfect sense and you should fully understand it.

Old Friends & Future Relatives?

We were very pleased to welcome our dear friends, Melanie and Scott Graf and their son Grant, from California. We had not seen each other in nearly 7 years! Grant and Chloe are less than a month apart in age. Since Melanie and I have been close friends since college, we decided it is only sensible that Chloe and Grant should be married. We are planning on an October wedding...that's October 2029. It was great to see Melanie & Scott and to finally meet Grant and have them meet Chloe. Chloe and Grant chatted in their baby babble and both discovered that they enjoy collecting the dog hair off the carpet, swimming and Baby Einstein videos. What more do you need? Chloe was disturbed by the fact that Grant seemed to enjoy his lunch experience at Pancho's Mexican Buffet (which was a request by Melanie). I have posted some photos of the two little ones for all to enjoy. It was a great time and we can't wait to see the Graf family again.

Chloe was glad to hear that her Aunt Deanna's surgery on her nose for allergies went well today. Aunt Deanna can't eat solids today, so Chloe decided to take the plunge and eat them for her. I decided to make food "fun" for Chloe and I let her play in everything. It was funny and she had to take a bath afterwards. But, despite the mess, she ate vanilla pudding (her favorite and the old standby when we try to get her to eat) and even some apple sauce. That's a big step.

Right now the Chloester is up. Daddy is trying to get her to go back to sleep. This is her second wakening tonight since she went to bed. She is getting two more teeth on the top and she has not been sleeping at night or napping well. I hope the teeth arrive soon!

The photos I posted are of Chloe and Grant, Shannon & Melanie with our children and Chloe enjoying her vanilla pudding.